Techno Recommendations March 2014

Review: While Luke Slater is busy as always, his Planetary Assault Systems output has slowed since the release of the all conquering Messenger LP for Ostgut Ton in 2011. For this Future Modular 12", Slater is less visceral and more arpeggiated than previous releases, harking back to a '90s-early-2000s PAS-sound, specifically the A-side's title-track. On the B-sides there's the deep, trippy and linear "Serc", but before that there's a sinister "Riot In Silo 12" that's showered in 909-hi-hats to get through first.

Review: Anyone that indulged in The Overlord, Willie Burns The Trilogy Tapes debut back in 2012, will attest that the creative stars seem to align when the WT Records founder chooses to work with his British namesake Bankhead. That four track release featured some of the most memorable and diverse music committed to wax by Burnett under his Willie Burns alias, and was made all the more special by some of Bankhead's best sleeve art in our opinion. The two Williams pair up once more for the Tab Of Acid 12" and it challenges Burnett's TTT debut in the excellence stakes. The title track is akin to travelling in a time machine to 4am on a Saturday night in Den Haag circa 1994 - real grotty basement acid techno! Providing contrast in a way Burnett does so well, the B-side offers two tracks of a more immersive nature, with "She Left In Spring" an exercise in dubby techno as pensive as the title would suggest.

Review: The fledgling Galdoors label launched last year, but has already become a low key outlet for quality deep house and techno thanks to releases from Audio Werner and Junes, both of which contained tracks that the more refined selectors out there regularly pull for. This third release will probably ensure a few more people take notice of Galdoors, with Hessle Audio affiliate Elgato resurfacing with one of his trademark irregular 12" transmissions. On the A side cut "Links", chords, strings and vocal edits roll out over a typically rough low end, while "Sun" is a hypnotic, evolving groove taking you deep and down, delivered in his unique minimalist style.

Review: Maybe it's because he is releasing on Modeselektor's label that US producer Truncate has chosen a different approach than usual. Whatever the explanation, Pressurize is full of surprises. The only real dance floor track on the release is "Bipolar", a stripped back, functional minimal techno groove that gets increasingly intense thanks to its grimy acid undercurrent. Elsewhere, Truncate is in more reflective mood. Both "Breakdown" and "Dial 20" are chord-heavy stepping grooves that combine the intensity of Technasia with the bassy power of Shed. Just in case there was any doubt that Pressurize marks a sideways shift for Truncate, the title track is led by dubby chords and slowed down, teased out beats.

Review: Jesper Dahlback as The Persuader provides some landscape dub techno for Par Grindvik's heavy hitting Stockholm LTD. The EP's title-track, "Fusion Of Thoughts", shares a similar floating arrangement to Tom Dicicco's Stockholm LTD debut, "Night Erosion", while things settle into something stripped and rhythmic in "Transform Human". "Absolute Reliance" provides some obscure, big room, 909 driven acid techno, leaving Grindvik with a final spot to remix "Fusion Of Thoughts", toning back the chords while beefing-up and tightening-up the groove, which at some points almost sounds like a reinterpretation of Ben Klock's "Sub Zero".

Review: Fresh from his Hinterland LP for Ghostly International late last year, Recondite is back in action on Dystopian with his crisp brand of techno witchcraft. "Dim" leads the charge with a stripped down quiver of a beat that gently buoys nerve jangling arpeggios locked in endless cycles of minor melodies. "Milk Plus" is equally nourish in its outlook, keeping the drums well and truly at the back of the mix in favour of pealing synth notes. "Nadsat" is marginally more up for it, rocking a sturdy tech house line in percussion even if the overall finish is a stoutly minimal one. "De Large" cools things off once more with mournful chord drones and a hypnotic line in hi hats.

Review: In the period since the last release on Vanguard Sound!, label founder Amir Alexander has seen his stock rise considerably with releases on Secretsundaze and Finale Sessions. Quite rightly too as the Chicago-based producer seems to have narrowed onto a style that is both deft and simplistic. If you copped any of the previous Vanguard Sound! transmissions, you'll know they aren't the type of 12" to gather dust and the Stardust Kisses EP is filled with everything we love about Alexander across four tracks. The title track is as good as anything Omar S has come up with lately, whilst "Black Snow Wolf" dips into chunky electro but the real highlight is "Binary Star System" where skewed funk meets the treated vocals of Clara Stjnrna.

Review: The brilliant Answer Code Request follows releases for his own imprint and Marcel Dettmann's MDR label to make his Ostgut Ton debut with the Breathe EP, which delivers three cuts of his individual brand of weighty, breakbeat-inspired techno. Each of the three tracks sees him in particularly ravey form; "The 4th Verdict" combines a chugging synth line with minimal Mills-inspired percussion, while "Ghostes" offers a suitably spectral vision of club techno in its cavernous chords and heavy breakbeat rhythms. The title track however must be his most euphoric to date combining headspinning chords with taut drums.

Review: Nu Zau delivers some more minimal rolling rhythms with the ambience of what a busy factory floor might sound like from afar. "Bisous" is perhaps the perfect example of this, as light reverbs and subtle vocal snippets add to the allure of a super dry track that plunges itself deeper into a fluid rhythm by the bar. Contrary to this is "Tete-A-Tete" which beats down much harder than the aforementioned pitter-pattered kicks, giving this track a slightly more industrial feel, even though it's silky smooth. Livio & Roby rework the A-side into something which is wetter in sound, but stronger in backbone, a perfect selection for those late, late night after parties.

Review: A new year for Theory sees Ben Sims curating a fifth and apparently final volume of intermittent 12" series The Box which features contributions from Sandrien, Tripeo, MDL and Craig McWhinney. The Box began in earnest back in 2008 and it's storied releases have included contributions from the likes of Phase, Hiroaki Iizuka, Ritzi Lee, DJT1000 which have ensured the series a reputation for fine tuned techno smashers. You will be familiar with three of the tracks here if you checked Sir Sims recent induction into the fabric mix series, not least the 909 heavy opening track "I Left My Girlfriend At The Club" from Trouw resident Sandrien!

Review: Rhythmic Theory makes his debut for Happy Skull with two of his darkest, otherworldly productions yet. "Decadance of Delay" is an unflinching sprint into techno-jack territory, all distorted machine rhythms, hallucinatory whispered vocals and hypnotic electronics, while "Endocrine Creatures" is a dystopian blast of 808 electro built around titanium-clad kicks, snappy snares and rippling acid lines.

Review: For a retrospective label with a contemporary touch, Chiwax constantly delivers the goods. This time they've employed Dance Mania artist DJ Deeon to provide some crude drums, vocals, and bootylicous basslines. On the A-side we have two tracks, the first, "Happy", sounds like a jacked-up, 909 reshuffle of a Afrika Bambaataa jam, while "The Truth" sees a monophonic tone sequence play out over soul-sleazy lyrics - the "Truthstamental" is the same, only without out the cheeky spoken words. Rolling percussion and computer bleeps set sail on "R U Sure", in a track with snare snaps like Robert Hood with the added nu-skool ghetto house of something Delroy Edwards might produce, while "Gigabytes" slams down the 8-bit techno, hard.

Review: Would you believe it's been 20 years since Fumiya Tanaka launched his own Torema Records? To celebrate this milestone - one that only a select few labels like Warp, Planet E and Soma have reached - Tanaka lifts two unreleased tracks from his '90s vault and presses them up fresh for 2014. The real bonus however comes in the complimentary ten-track CD of the label's treasured works from the last two decades. The sometimes Tresor and Perlon contributor opens this two-track 12" with "1999", a machine-hissing drum track of steamy snares, distorted basslines and inclining-declining phase patterns, while the techy-house beats of "Do Op To Far" skip through odd pulses of hi-frequency noise and click-clacking percussion. One for all you Torema fans, and an introduction for everyone else.

Review: Founded last year by Regis, James Ruskin and Juan Mendez, Jealous God's initial 'issues' fell very much within the remit of the expertly sculpted techno that the now defunct Sandwell District pioneered. However the label's focus has seemingly become a lot more open ended and willing to exploring the trio's well documented love for DIY post punk and industrial sounds and it's something that continues here with the debut of Broken English Club. The latest project from UK techno producer Oliver Ho, Broken English Club seems to be his most confident expression of his post punk and industrial influences, which have previously manifested themselves to varying degrees in the Raudive guise and his work as The Eyes In The Heat. His five track Jealous God debut features the excellent "Plastic Bag" and is complemented by a dub heavy mix CD from Taylor Burch of DVA DAMAS.

Review: As the man behind the long-running Perc Trax label, Ali Wells has had a considerable part to play in shaping the landscape of UK techno. His debut album Wicker & Steel, released in 2011, was only his first full-length in a decade of producing, but the influence both it and the curation of his label had was wide ranging, prefiguring the revival for a harder, more industrial aesthetic in techno which emerged in the following years. The Power & The Glory is Wells' second album, and is a significantly more ambitious statement than its predecessor, combining his obvious appreciation of the experimental noise sound coming from the US underground with the pounding floor-focused rave bangers he's well known for. Quite simply, Wells has raised the techno bar once again.

Review: Leskin, Massimo Di Lena and Rio Padice, the crew of Italian producers known collectively as Early Sounds Collective return with a quartet of stripped down, raw house and techno bumpers for the adventurous selectors out there. Di Lena and Padice are first up, unveiling the MFO project with the jittering, scratchy "Mephisto Frequency Oscillator" which possesses it's own unique analogue funk -watch out for the acid injection in the last third! Leskin is on a solo flex with "Outer Intrusions" which presents a nice contrast between the hefty bass drums and warbling chords that filter out in a haze. Face down and the JRMS pairing of Joseph Cardone and Massimo Di Lena get grubby with "Soak" whilst MCMXC lays down a heavy arrangement of strident drums and Hieroglyphic Being style loops for the trackiest cut here.

Review: The Prime Numbers label continues to make a name for itself by hooking up with big name producers. One quick glance at who's appeared in remix form on the label and you will see everyone from Dettmann, Nodge and Klock, to Fred P, XDB, Conforce and Terrence Dixon. For this latest record, Tresor resident Marcelus and prolific Swedish duo Skudge provide two, as you would expect, club-geared cuts. Skudge tackle Trus'me's "Moonlight Kiss", keeping the drums linear and vocals cut up while the soft, ambient chords in the background compliment the track's title. Marcelus delivers an almost demonic 'Friction' remix to "Hindsight" thanks to its deep 'oh' vocal, while spectral monophonic notes and claps sound off in the background to chilling affect. Superb stuff.

Review: When he's not making house music as 2400 Operator for Underground Quality, or industrial strength techno for Sonic Groove as part of Northern Structures, Troels Knudsen is Ctrls for Token. This latest Movement release is his fourth solo EP, all of which have come through the Belgian label, which now makes it safe to say he's as much a member of the Token family as Inigo Kennedy, [Phase] and the new Orphx and Ancient Methods collaboration, Eschaton. Each production on this three-track 12" sees similar beaten down drums of his Northern Structures project, although this time they're pitched against metallic screeches of contorted synths, and it's the Dane's strongest solo work yet.